Milky Way stars that are high and low in metallicity have been mapped by the ESA Gaia mission. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC ...

In the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, two gigantic "bubbles" extend roughly 50,000 light-years above and below the galactic ...

The European satellite, launched in 2013, has exhausted its gas reserves and is preparing to return to a stable orbit before being 'passivated.' But while the data collection that revolutionized ...

Sagittarius A* has been seen by human eyes with an "image produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon ...

So how well do you know the Milky Way? Let's test your knowledge of our galaxy's size, age, speed and more with the 15 ...

The Gaia mission, launched by the European Space Agency, has completed a decade of groundbreaking astronomical observations, collecting over three trillion data points on two billion stars and ...

Conflicting distance measurements have added to the uncertainty. One data source places one object at 6,500 light years away, ...

Radio galaxies already feature mind-bending physics, with supermassive black holes accreting matter at the galactic core and sending out vast plasma jets that glow at radio frequencies. Those larger ...

According to NASA, "there are hundreds of them"—massive black holes roaming space. It is now emerging and reshaping the ...

ESA’s decade-long Milky Way Gaia mapping mission still has tons of data to release over the next few years. Expect surprises.

Gaia was launched on December 19, 2013, and began scanning the stars in July 2014. It mapped over two billion stars, ...